Real-world asset tokenization platform OpenEden and crypto infrastructure provider BitGo have entered the competition to issue Hyperliquid’s planned native stablecoin, USDH, bringing the number of contenders to eight.
Hyperliquid validators will start voting for the USDH proposal from Thursday and will be able to cast their votes until Sunday. Other suitors include Ethena, Paxos, Frax, Agora, Native Markets and Sky.
The winning bid will decide how it will manage Hyperliquid’s $5.9 billion stablecoin reserve, with 95.56% of it held in USDC (USDC), according to DefiLlama.
OpenEden’s bid for USDH
OpenEden’s founder and CEO Jeremy Ng on Wednesday laid out the platform’s proposal on how it will handle USDH were it to win the bid.
The RWA platform pledged to distribute all the yield it will generate from the USDH reserves to the Hyperliquid ecosystem, which will include buybacks.
It will additionally use the proceeds from minting and redeeming USDH to buy back Hyperliquid’s HYPE token and distribute it to the Hyperliquid validators.
The company has earmarked 3% of its native EDEN token supply to provide additional incentives, which could be boosted in the future.
USDH reserves will be stored in a tokenized US Treasury Bills Fund, whose custody will be under The Bank of New York Mellon.
The company has partnered with The Bank of New York Mellon, Chainlink, AEON Pay and Monarq Asset Management for adoption.
BitGo touts regulatory prowess
Meanwhile, BitGo said it will leverage US dollar-backed liquid assets, bank deposits, short-term treasury bills and more for minting and redeeming USDH.
The company stated that it will use Chainlink’s crosschain interoperability protocol to maintain interoperability between chains.
The yield from the underlying assets will be used to buy and stake HYPE tokens, with the company taking a 0.3% fee of the total reserves.
BitGo touted its regulatory compliance as its major strength, as six of its companies have acquired licenses from Dubai, Singapore, Denmark, New York and a Markets in Crypto-Assets license from Germany.
Related: How Hyperliquid hit $330B in monthly trading volume with just 11 employees
Native Markets leads the pack
At the time of writing, Native Markets has received the most votes, with 33.73% of the delegate stake selecting its proposal.
Native Markets, co-founded by community member Max Fiege, has proposed splitting the proceeds from the reserves, with half of the proceeds being used to buy back HYPE tokens, while the other half being granted to the Assistance Fund. However, the proposal has received backlash from the community.
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at crypto venture fund Dragonfly, has cast doubt regarding Native Markets’ bid.
“Hearing from multiple bidders that none of the validators are interested in considering anyone besides Native Markets. It’s not even a serious discussion, as though there was a backroom deal already done.” Qureshi said.
Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik refuted the claim, saying that they along with their allies, have been engaged with bidders and have encouraged them to put forth their proposal to make the bidding process competitive.
Paxos Labs, which submitted a revised bid on Wednesday, is currently second with a vote share of 11.52%.
However, 46.49% stake remains unassigned, which could drastically change the outcome of who gets to create the USDH token.
A Polymarket poll indicates that market participants are largely expecting Native Markets to win the proposal, with 90% of the poll users voting for it.
Other bidders include Ethena Labs, which submitted its proposal on Tuesday, while Sky, formerly Marker, submitted its proposal on Monday.
Magazine: Meet the Ethereum and Polkadot co-founder who wasn’t in Time Magazine